Not so fast, folks burying Craig Carton — the arrested sportstalk radio host is himself “a victim” of this whole Ponzi scheme thing, attorney Robert C. Gottlieb said on Friday.
“The government’s allegations against Craig Carton demonstrate a gross misunderstanding of what happened,” the lawyer started his statement to the media. “Craig is a victim who was deceived, manipulated and used by individuals seeking to gather assets for their own fraudulent schemes.”
“Craig is a good man, devoted to his family with a long-time personal commitment to giving back to his community,” Gottlieb continued. The defense counselor then backed that up with four more sentences about Carton’s charitable efforts.
Carton (pictured above, right) was arrested by the FBI Wednesday at his Manhattan home and charged with securities fraud and wire fraud.
The 48-year-old former New Jersey 101.5 FM “Jersey Guy” and co-conspirator Michael Wright allegedly told investors that they had access to discounted blocks of tickets to sporting and music events, which they could turn around and sell for a profit. That access never actually existed and written agreements provided to investors were fraudulent, the FBI says. The millions raised were “misappropriated” and used in part to “pay personal debts and repay prior investors as part of a Ponzi-like scheme,” per the federal agency.
Some of the funds were purportedly used to cover Carton’s gambling losses.